Boris Johnson has told the Covid-19 Inquiry that he is willing to hand over “all unredacted WhatsApp” messages – including 2020 material from a previous phone discarded for security reasons.
The former prime minister is under fire once again after it emerged on Thursday that he had only handed over Covid-related messages from May 2021 or later to Cabinet Office officials.
In a letter to inquiry chair Baroness Hallett, Mr Johnson said he would today hand over all the material already given to the Cabinet Office “in unredacted form” to her team.
Earlier, a minister said Rishi Sunak’s legal bid to prevent the inquiry from obtaining WhatsApp messages sent by Boris Johnson to government colleagues during the pandemic was likely to fail.
Science minister George Freeman, appearing on BBC Question Time, insisted the Cabinet Office decision to launch judicial review proceedings was not a “cynical waste of time” but admitted he thought the prospect of success unlikely.
The Cabinet Office is seeking a judicial review of inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett’s order to release the documents, arguing it should not have to hand over irrelevant material.
